Probably the most
acclaimed
baseball in the
Reliquary’s
collections
isn’t even a
baseball; rather
it is a potato,
which was
disguised as a
baseball and
thrown by former
minor league
catcher Dave
Bresnahan. Now
in a somewhat
desiccated
state, the
potato has been
preserved since
1987 in this
specimen jar
filled with
denatured
alcohol. (Photo
courtesy of
Larry Goren)

In
October of 2000, the Baseball Reliquary acquired for its
permanent collections what is believed to be the actual
potato thrown by former minor league catcher Dave
Bresnahan in one of the classic stunts in baseball
history. In August of 1987, Bresnahan, then a
25-year-old second-string catcher with the Williamsport
(Pennsylvania) Bills of the Class-AA Eastern League,
decided to liven up a meaningless late-season home game.
Before the game, Bresnahan peeled and sculpted a potato
in the shape of a baseball. Behind the plate in the
fifth inning, with the potato concealed in his mitt and
a runner on third base, he threw the potato wildly past
his third baseman, hoping the runner would think he made
an errant pick-off throw. The play worked to perfection.
The runner at third trotted home, and Bresnahan tagged
him out with the baseball. An umpire retrieved the
potato and awarded the runner home for Bresnahan’s
deception. The following day, Bresnahan was fined by his
manager and then released by the Bills’ parent club,
the Cleveland Indians, for what they perceived as an
affront to the integrity of the game.

Dave
Bresnahan

Although
his four-year professional baseball career was over,
Bresnahan, much like Rupert Pupkin in Martin
Scorcese’s film, The King of Comedy, became an
overnight celebrity. He received numerous interview
requests from around the world, and Bob Verdi of the Chicago
Tribune named him the “1987 Sports Person of the
Year.” In 1988, the Williamsport club held a “Dave
Bresnahan Day” and retired his uniform number 59.
Bresnahan told the more than 4,000 fans in attendance,
“Lou Gehrig had to play in 2,130 consecutive games and
hit .340 for his number to be retired, and all I had to
do was bat .140 and throw a potato.” Today, Bresnahan
is a successful stockbroker living in Tempe, Arizona.After the catcher’s stunt, the umpires examined
the potato and one of them pocketed it. When the inning
was over, the umpire, incredible as it sounds, simply
tossed the potato in a trash can near the front row of
stands. A teenage boy instantly ran to the discarded
potato and, after brushing off hot dog wrappers and beer
cups, salvaged it. He took it home and placed it in a
specimen jar from his high school biology class, wisely
filled the jar with denatured alcohol, and the potato
has been preserved in this desiccated state since then.
The teenager, now a Reading, Pennsylvania attorney,
purportedly offered the potato to the National Baseball
Hall of Fame and Museum in the summer of 2000, but
officials in Cooperstown showed little interest in this
historic relic; in fact, they said that “it would be
perfect for the Baseball Reliquary.” The attorney then
contacted the Reliquary and arrangements were made to
transfer the potato, in its original specimen jar, to
its new home in Southern California.